The pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, has condemned the divisive Igbo must-go threats making the rounds in some parts of the country, and stressed that such ethnic bigotry could destabilise Nigeria’s unity and existence.

Afenifere, which frowned against such inflammatory posts circulating on social media platforms, said that such divisive rhetoric has the potential to sow seeds of discord and conflict among ethnic groups in the country.

The mainstream Yoruba group, in a communiqué after its expanded National Executive Committee meeting held on Thursday at the Lagos residence of its leader, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, urged the government to take decisive actions to address the ugly trend to ensure the safety and security of all Nigerians, regardless of ethnic background.

In the communiqué signed by Adebanjo and the National Publicity Secretary, Justice Faloye, the group stressed that the nationwide protest against bad governance ought not to have taken place if the federal government had addressed the grievances of the protesters.

Afenifere, however, berated the action of some protesters who displayed foreign flags, maintaining that the era of military incursion into politics is gone forever.

The communique read: “Afenifere salutes those security agents who professionally ensured civil treatment of the demonstrators and protected them from attacks by apparently hired gangs but condemns in no unmistakable terms the alleged display of foreign flags and interests in Nigeria’s purely domestic conversation and the surreptitious calls for military intervention in the political affairs of the nation. It is eloquently made clear that the military will the military will never again be tolerated in the politics and governance of Nigeria.

“While the nation’s economic woes had their roots in maladministration, particularly in the immediate past Buhari years, President Tinubu’s rather bizarre inaugural announcement of subjecting the pivotal issues of access to petroleum products and foreign exchange to the vagaries of market forces worsened the economy exponentially, leaving the ship of the Nigerian state rudderless and its economy in an intractable state of flux.

“Afenifere commends President Tinubu’s decision to address the nation, though somewhat belated, unlike the posture of insensitive aloofness by his immediate predecessor in similar circumstances in the wake of the 2020 #EndSars uprising. The President regrettably failed to rise to the occasion in statesmanship, particularly the hypocritical warning of those fanning embers of ethnic disunity, which is the stock-in-trade of some of his advisers and spokespersons, and the failure to concretely address the existential issues raised by the protesters.

“Afenifere decries the statement credited to agents of the Federal Government that the refined petroleum products from the Dangote refinery are inferior to those imported from abroad, which statement without suggesting a remedy is treasonable, particularly in the current Nigeria’s state of economic and political emergency as it is meant to serve personal and foreign interests.

“The Federal Government should investigate deliberate violations of rights, particularly the circumstances of the killing of those who died in the protests, and bring to book those, including security agents, proven to be culpable in these regards.

“The Federal Government should not take kindly but investigate the alleged involvement of foreign interests as threats to Nigeria’s sovereignty and the treasonable calls for military intervention in the political affairs of the nation, the proof of which should attract the full wrath of the law.

“Since efforts to revamp government refineries are bedevilled with corruption,government should consider the privatisation of the refineriesand, as a deliberate policy, encourage local refineries, particularly in the Niger Delta, and set up quality control mechanisms in that regard for optimum local refinery and citizens’ access to affordable refined petroleum products.

“Afenifere considers it cheaper, more transparent, and result-orientated, with the collateral benefits of mass employment and a reduction in massive reliance on foreign exchange for the NNPC to sell crude oil to Dangote and other local refineries in Naira and at subsidised rates than subsidising refined products from overseas with its associated corruption and capital flight.

Afenifere further stated that “Lowering and stabilising foreign exchange rates, import duties, and interest rates: Since the government supplies foreign exchange to the market, it should increase the amount supplied by all means possible to bring the price down, even if it entails debt rescheduling and moratoriums. Interest rates must also be reduced to spur economic growth since our inflation is cost- and demand-driven.

“This key demand should be met with increased food production, not importation. Our farmlands and farmers must be secured from attacks through restructuring and decentralisation of policing. With the safe and peaceful returns of farmers, it takes less than a year to grow all our staple foods, so we can end this hunger within a year.

“The government must tackle issues affecting our crude oil production and revenues by providing more security, metering our actual oil production, and curbing corruption. In the long term, the government must develop the heavy manufacturing sector that can provide mass employment, which could be done through the accelerated development of a railway complex that will spur growth in all sectors of the economy.

“The President should not only accelerate the implementation of the Orosanye Report but also curtail wasteful, profligate, and self-serving expenditures of public officers. Wasting our commonwealth on expensive cars, official jets, humongous allowances, and renovations of official residences must stop.

“Afenifere emphasises the right of every Nigerian citizen to reside in any part of his choice, and in realisation of this, he notes that Nigerians are massively resident in every state or geopolitical zone, irrespective of their ethnic identities. Governments at all levels should rise against the threats to any group in any part of the country, immediately investigate, and decisively deal with those found culpable because of their implications for the security, unity, and corporate existence of Nigeria.

“Afenifere urges President Tinubu to see the nationwide protest, the diversity of its prosecution, and the outcome in different regions as a clear verdict for the restructuring of the Nigerian Federation in tandem with the well-considered foundational covenant of true federalism, and in an honest demonstration of statesmanship, immediately set in motion irreversible machinery in this regard as the panacea for the unity, peaceful coexistence, and development of a nation where no man, woman, or tribe is oppressed.”